ABC Sues the FCC Over an Order Pushing Eight Stations Into Early License Renewal

The network's First Amendment complaint, as described by Deadline, ties the FCC's demand — for licenses that don't expire until 2028 — to Donald Trump's attacks on Jimmy Kimmel and asks a court for a temporary restraining order.

ABC filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission on August 18, 2026, arguing that the agency's regulatory actions and investigations were part of a Trump administration effort to punish the network for its speech, according to Deadline's account of the filing. At the center of the complaint is an FCC order requiring ABC's eight owned broadcast stations to file for early license renewal — a demand Deadline described as very unusual, given that the first of those licenses was not set to expire until 2028.

The dispute reaches Los Angeles through the Walt Disney Company's Burbank operations and the jobs attached to its owned stations, the local stake flagged by this desk's assignment. The FCC's proceeding, as described in the complaint, would put the licenses themselves in play.

What the FCC says it is doing

The FCC tied its early-renewal order to an ongoing investigation of the network's diversity, equity and inclusion practices, per Deadline. A commission spokesperson issued a statement on the lawsuit: “All broadcasters have a legal obligation to operate in the public interest—even Disney. The FCC has been examining claims that Disney engaged in illegal DEI discrimination for over a year. Disney is obviously very concerned about the FCC's proceeding, as evidenced by their ongoing campaign of disinformation as well as their decision to ask a court to stop the FCC from further pursuing matters.”

The causal link ABC is trying to draw

ABC's lawyers noted that the early-renewal order came a day after Donald Trump called on the network to fire Jimmy Kimmel over a comment about First Lady Melania Trump, Deadline reported. The complaint also points to a July 16 primetime address that ABC and NBC declined to carry. ABC livestreamed the speech on ABC News Live, which the filing says it ordinarily would not have done. The network's legal team wrote that after Trump called during the speech for both networks to lose their licenses, the FCC “promptly confirmed the connection: following the President's demand, the Chairman stated that the Commission would consider ABC's decision not to broadcast the July 16 address as part of its review of the Stations' renewal applications.”

The complaint revisits the Kimmel suspension of September 2025, citing FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's warning on Benny Johnson's podcast that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way” and that “these companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” ABC suspended Kimmel hours later, per Deadline, and later returned him to air “with full awareness that doing so was likely to invite further reprisal from the Administration.” Carr has said his comments were not a threat and that the network made “a business decision.”

The document demands

As part of an equal-time investigation into The View, the FCC's Media Bureau directed the network's Houston station to produce all internal communications among the program's booking staff, segment producers, executive producer and on-air co-hosts discussing any candidate over a two-year period, according to the lawsuit as reported by Deadline. The bureau also demanded a list of every political donation by employees and co-hosts over the past four years, with the date of each. A second inquiry two weeks later sought editorial standards across ABC programs, naming Good Morning America, This Week with George Stephanopoulos and ABC World News Tonight with David Muir.

The View has not booked a political candidate since a February appearance by U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, which the suit says triggered the investigation. ABC is asking the court for a temporary restraining order barring the FCC from taking further steps in the early license renewal proceedings.